"All the summer-sown crops in north India will be down by 30% except paddy, which is yet to be sown in a big way," Krishan Bir Chaudhury, president of Bharatiya Krishak Samaj (Indian Farmer's Society) said.

Of all the common agricultural wastes, rice husks (also called paddy husks) yield the largest quantity of ash - around 20 % by weight - which also has the highest silica content - around 93 % by weight.

When the paddy, that is, the rice with the husks still on it, has been dried and piled in a heap for threshing, all the friends of the household are invited to the threshing-floor, and food and drink are brought out.